Monday, 30 June 2014

O
LORD, I am calling to you. Please hurry! Listen when I cry to you for help! Accept
my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening
offering. (Psalm 141:1-2)

This is my last post on our June theme “Stand up”. U guess
life to us is as much a blessing as it is a challenge. Every day we live with
all the wondrous blessings the Lord pours into our lives and at the same time
we face daily challenges as a relentless enemy tries to counter God’s blessings
with pain and fear. I thought on how to end a month where my primary focus was
to redirect your focus back to God and motivate you to Rise up and beyond your
challenges as you call onto God with trust and faith. It is not an easy one to
end and I must admit that I too need motivation on a daily basis.

Life can be so tough at times and some days we just want
to fall down and give up. Everyone gets to a point where it is just enough and
we just can’t give anymore. It is in these times when you feel the very strength sucked
out of you by the hardships and pain life throws at you. It is in these times
where we fear and worry and we have no idea how it all will get back together
again. We feel lost and powerless….

I would like to remind you of a man I know. He said: That is why we never give up. Though our
bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present
troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory
that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the
troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.
For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will
last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Don let the enemy fool you my dear friend. Look up as I
pray that the Lord will miniaturise your problems and lift you up high above
them safely in His hands. Look up and look ahead, my friend, for it is not
about now. It is about where we are heading for.

Friday, 27 June 2014

Teach
me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me
forward on a firm footing. (Psalm 143:10)

The Lord surely knows what we need and when we need it.
It was my son’s birthday yesterday and as I was running my morning run I
thought about our significance in life. We are embarrassed by our mistakes
because we sometimes do not allow ourselves the gap of being not perfect. I was
thinking of my work and how we always seek acceptance and rewards for the
things we do. We like to be applauded and recognised for our achievements. How
simple minded are we at times? I believe that all I do and all I am capable to
do is because of the grace God gives me. When we start to look at what we do
from this perspective we soon realise that our viewpoints about life is a
little crooked.

We suddenly understand that the mistakes we make are
there for our benefit and the falls we live through are there to strengthen us.
I do believe that my mistakes are there not only to teach me the right ways but
to keep me humble so that I can and will always look to God for my guidance.

To conclude my stand up for today – let us start each day
with these words: Lord, teach me to do your will for you are my God. May your
wonderful Spirit lead me each day with a firm footing in my Jesus foundation.
Let each step I take glorify you and may even my mistakes highlight your
presence in my life. In Jesus name.

Thursday, 26 June 2014

Let me
hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where
to walk, for I give myself to you. (Psalm 143:8)

Our current project is quite a demanding one and at times
I feel the strain from constant problem solving. Yesterday the Lord just left
me in awe once again with His amazing ways. I was presented with a problem that at the time
seemed a bit of a challenge and a delay that would certainly push my time
frames back. When I looked at what I needed to do I realised that unknowingly
the Lord guided me to prepare this section in a way that when I needed to add
my huge change, it took me only 10 minutes. What I thought should keep me busy
for most of day took in fact only a few minutes to fix. Wow! What an awesome
God.

You see my friend it is when we think that the enemy has
given us a new hazard that will surely break our confidence then the Lord comes
and just displays His majesty by showing us how small and insignificant the
enemy truly is.

I love this verse. This is our prayer today as we lift up
our hands and call His name. Oh wonderful Lord, let us hear of your unfailing
love each morning for we trust in you and you alone. You are all we desire. Please
show us where to walk for we are your servants. In Jesus name.

Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Bring
me out of prison so I can thank you. The godly will crowd around me, for you
are good to me. (Psalm 142:7)

I have this image of a person in a prison made out of all
the hardship and misery that life can hold. This person is locked behind the
bars of problems as he or she is unable to get out. It almost seems as if he or
she is so used to this that they have become accustomed to the prison life and
has accepted it as the way it is.

My friend life should not imprison us. We should not be
chained and caged by the problems we face. Life is all about living and living
for Jesus. Yes times are hard and we are living in a very demanding time. The
demands that life grips us with is only as big as our fear. If we allow misery
and hardship to take the place of Jesus then we have accepted our prison term
and we are destined to a life behind bars.

Jesus is freedom and in that I mean you can actually be
imprisoned and you will still feel free. It is not a freedom that we can see
but a freedom that we feel. Jesus comes and takes away the worries that life
gives by providing us with the solution that is Him. With Him comes content and
a desire for Him and not for worldly material things.

When you accepted Jesus it does not mean that the issues
in life will suddenly disappear, no my friend, in fact they will increase,
because the enemy does not want you to go to heaven. Challenges you will still
have, but the way these challenges affects you will be different. You will know
that in the end all of this is temporary and all that we face is only for a
short time. It will all disappear when Jesus returns and then my friend, then
we will live with Him in heaven away from all the hardship we had. Then your
investment in heaven will surely pay of and you will live in the house of the LORD forever.

"If
the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love
you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the
world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.” (John 15:18-19)

“I
have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will
have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the
world." (John 16:33)

Tuesday, 24 June 2014

Then
I pray to you, O LORD. I say, "You are my place of refuge. You are all I
really want in life. (Psalm 142:5)

As I drove home from the gym yesterday I thought about
the roads we encounter in life. Some of us are on a narrow and bumpy road and
some of us are on a little wider and less bumpy road. Some even seem to travel
on a highway when we look at their way of life. The fact is that we have no
idea what other people’s roads really look like. It might seem nice and smooth
from where we stand but in fact their road cough be hard and difficult and
maybe right on an edge.

When we stand up and we start again it will always seem
as if our path is impossible and too hard to travel on. We could easily be
discouraged when we find ourselves back on our path and it seems just as hard
as before. The Lord wants us to stand up today and call out to Him. He wants us
to remember that He is our refuge and our place of safety. He is all we need
and all we should really want in life.

Stand up my friend and let us walk into this day with our
hearts desiring only Him and seeking only Him in our lives. Let us feel our
burdens lighten as we enter our place of refuge in the Hands of our creator.

Book for the month

Many Christians feel bombarded by the messages they hear and the trends they see in our rapidly changing world. How can we resist being conformed to the pattern of this world? What will faithfulness to Christ look like in these tumultuous times? How can we be true to the gospel in a world where myths and false visions of the world so often prevail? In This is Our Time, Trevin Wax provides snapshots of twenty-first-century American Life in order to help Christians understand the times. By analyzing our common beliefs and practices (smartphone habits, entertainment intake, and our views of shopping, sex, marriage, politics, and life’s purpose), Trevin helps us see through the myths of society to the hope of the gospel. As faithful witnesses to Christ, Trevin writes, we must identify the longing behind society’s most cherished myths (what is good, true, beautiful), expose the lie at the heart of these myths (what is false and damaging), and show how the gospel tells a better story – one that exposes the lie but satisfies the deeper longing.

Movie of the month

The pre-ministry life of Jesus from his baptism with John the Baptist to his exploration of the wilderness